Loss of p53 Induces Tolerance to Viral Mimicry as a Mechanism of Immune Evasion in Early Tumorigenesis

Ishak and colleagues report that the loss of p53 disrupts constitutive heterochromatin, enabling the transcription of immunogenic repetitive elements. Unlike acute viral mimicry activation, a chronic viral mimicry response mediated by p53 loss during cancer initiation induces tolerance to cytosolic nucleic acids, ultimately diminishing cellular immunogenicity as a strategy for immune evasion. See related article by Ishak et al., p. 793.